hello
i found a somewhat close to me person that may have some san juan rabbits for sale. i am wanting rabbits for meat and to tan their hides. for myself and family mostly. maybe to sell some for meat or a few as pets. what do you all think?

I googled them, but all I could find is that they are used to train beagle pups to hunt because of their similarity to cottontails. It seems like they are all in Ohio too!

It sounds like they are probably pretty small since cottontails are, so I don't know how that would work out for meat. You might have a good market selling to hunters to train their pups though.

I think you could do a lot better with a breed of rabbit that was actually developed for the purposes you desire.

San Juans, from my understanding, are basically a feral population that has been adopted by some for various dog training purposes. You will get better return on your time and money raising a good meat breed.

Yes besides just being agouti mutts they are also a "running breed" mutt LOL

A friend of mine has some san juan, despite her best efforts they do not tame well and are difficult to handle. She has to wear welding gloves to bring her does to buck as they enjoy biting and scatching her. Maybe they think she is trying to eat them, ...who knows but they are crazy lil hoppers !!

Wow.

Friendliness is definitely a plus when raising rabbits.

Most of the meat breeds are pretty friendly. New Zealands, though the reds are reputed to be a little less friendly; Californians, Silver Fox, the d'Argents... they're all supposed to be pretty easy to handle.

The San Juans sound like too much to handle, besides possibly being small.

San Juans are a feral 'race' descended from domestic rabbits that were released on San Juan Island when the economy at the time, failed. Supposedly, they 'smell' like cottontails-- but quitefrankly, if they are the same genetics as our domestics, then all you are getting is a feral 'mutt' that has been recently 're-domesticated' Yeah, stick to the genetics that you will be able to find backgrounds on---

We actually had a few San Juan rabbits about eight years ago because my husband was told that they would be good to train our beagle puppies with and we use to take our dogs to beagle trials (competition). In our experience, they are smaller than cottontails and our beagles really did not seem to be that interested in their scent...not like a cottontail...so we decided to give up on that idea! Now, our line of beagles are a little more aggressive than other lines and so maybe that had something to do with it but, all that to say - I agree with the others, stick to a meat breed unless you are interested in that kind of a coat. They do look like very much like cottontails in their coloring.

I wouldn't do it, simply because it sounds like they won't fulfill your needs for a home meat rabbit. I may be biased, but I recommend Palominos or American Chins.